Thursday, September 6, 2007

Trauma

For those of you who have not yet heard, yesterday Sarah hurt herself really badly. She fell while she had her toothbrush in her mouth. It is one of those things that you hear about happening but don't think it ever will. She was just standing there brushing her teeth, when David bumped into her and knocked her over. It punctured the inside of her cheek, and we spent 6 1/2 hours in the emergency room. She is doing okay right now. If you don't like gorey details, skip down to the next paragraph. Basically when she punctured her cheek, the fatty tissue from inside came out. It looked horrible. The ER doctor had to push it all back in there and stitch her up.

Our praise, the doctor and nurse were wonderful! I have said this before (and also in regards to Sarah - how did our sweet little girl, who is very calm end up with more medical problem?) but we so appreciated all of our friends in the medical profession in Bartlesville. We always knew people we could trust to call with problems. But so far, we have had good medical care here also, and I am thankful. The doctor who worked on Sarah last night has six children of his own, so he understood things from a parent's perspective, and we really enjoyed our nurse, who also has three or four children. She took great care of us and of Sarah!

The prayer request - The doctor is concerned about Sarah having punctured her parietal gland (a salivary glad) and thinks it could cause potential problems in the future. He recommended we take her to a pediatric ENT. There is not one in Bakersfield, but there is an excellent (or so we have heard) children's hospital North of Fresno, so he referred us there. He said that if the parietal gland is damaged, her saliva might fill up the tissue inside her cheek or cause infection or something. He thought she would need surgery. But in the process, we spoke to our friend and an ENT doctor in Bartlesville, Chuck Holland, who said he would not do surgery. He said that the chances of her damaging it are so slim, and the surgery is traumatic and that the worse case scenario of not correcting it is not as traumatic as the surgery. He said he would just leave it and keep an eye on it. So we have received two opposite recommendations. One from a friend who we trust but who has not seen Sarah and one from a doctor who is NOT a specialist in the field and who we do not really know (but who we did have a good feeling about) but who has actually seen Sarah. I think, for my piece of mind, we are going to go ahead and take her for a consultation at that hospital with the pediatric ENT to get another opinion. If it differs from Chuck, we will have a new request, but I am hoping that after we tell him what Chuck said, he will agree! I just know that as a mom, if I do not follow what the ER doctor says and something happens to my daughter, I will always question myself, and we do need to have her in for follow up anyway, so we might as well follow up with the specialist.

In the meantime, she had a tough night, though not as bad as we thought it might have been. She woke up this morning in pain, but we gave her some Tylenol with Codeine. We thought it would knock her out, but it didn't. She has been playing and acting pretty normal this morning. Her cheek is swollen, but not black and blue like they thought it would be - I guess that could still come. She wanted to brush her teeth this morning! I was afraid we would never get a toothbrush back in her mouth. And she can still suck her thumb! While I was planning and easier way to break the habit, I thought that this might do it, but obviously it is going to be a lot harder than I thought. She has eaten lot of yogurt and pudding!!!

Thanks so much for your prayers. We are so grateful for our new support system here! The Limiero's totally took care of our kids, and I knew I did not need to worry about them. Eric was here at our house prepared to take care of the kids, and I didn't even know it. Our friends, the Morrisons, who we were so looking forward to having dinner with, brought that dinner to our home at 8:45. Their daughter, Holly, brought Sarah a doll and a picture. When Sarah woke up this morning, she immediately asked for her doll from Holly, then named the doll Holly. Thanks so much!!! We are also so grateful for cheap or free long distance now, too. We were able to get people praying right away and have many conversations with our family and close friends from Bartlesville. Thanks so much!

Sorry I didn't get on your blog to read this till today, but I am glad she is doing better. Did you ever hear back from the Fresno specialist yet? I hope you can get her in soon. She is so sweet looking in those pics! She looks like David to me now (maybe it is the swollen cheek :))

About Me

First, I love Jesus and am so thankful that he is my Savior!! I am married to my amazing husband, Brent, and have three handsome sons and a beautiful daughter. We have planted a church in Bakersfield, California, and our prayer is that people will see Jesus in us and want to know more about him. I also work as a social worker for Pathway Family Services.

Romans 5:2b-5

And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, becuse we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.